Chapter 21- Back to School

"So talking about kids?" Remus questioned, a bit more serious. "That sounds pretty official."

"Not really," James sighed. "I really don't want to mess anything up this time. I'm just going to be her friend a while." The room was silent for a few moments as Remus tried not to show his amazement. This was not the same young man that planned pranks on Slytherins. James spoke again, bringing Remus back to reality. "It has a nice ring to it though, doesn't it? Harry James Potter," he tried. "Harry Potter." "Harry," he said with a smile, probably picturing his life with Lily raising a little boy. Remus would not have suspected his friend of those thoughts even a few months ago.

Remus's eyes widened in shock, Harry.

Remus's mind reeled as he jumped quickly from one conclusion to the next. Everything made sense. Of course she knew about James and his childhood friends. He was her best friend's father. And knowing James, he probably talked about their Hogwarts days whenever he had a chance. Hermione was young enough to be his daughter in her time! That wasn't what he wanted to think about the girl he lo… the girl he was dating. He wouldn't let himself think down that trail of thought. Not when she was trying to leave.

He told himself that he should have been expecting this. She told him he was her teacher, for goodness sake. But she had had a crush on him… This was far too much to think about. Remus would confront Hermione about it later, but he couldn't do that now anyway. He was suddenly tired, or at least unwilling to do any more active activity than to pull off most of his clothes and crawl into bed. If James thought that his friend was being less talkative than usual, then he didn't mention it. James was likely lost in his own thoughts as well, thoughts of a different young woman.

*****Hermione*****

Hermione woke the next day ready for classes to begin. She finally felt adequately prepared for her classes, having finished over the break every assignment that teachers had even mentioned, as well as reading and revising her notes from the year so far as well as to finish reading through the first time the books for the rest of the year. She felt more like her old self with all of that done. She even had a bit of time to look through the past years books that her classmates would have used, to compensate for teaching differences between her time and theirs. She realized that it would be disastrous if she displayed spell knowledge that hadn't been invented yet in this time. Fortunately, or perhaps disappointingly, she found that at least for the first three years at Hogwarts, the curriculum was much the same for those twenty years, with the exception of the always unpredictable Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers. Even in this time, one never stayed longer than a year. Hermione wondered how Dumbledore possibly managed to find a new teacher each year. It should hardly be surprising how poor most of them turned out to be.

Hermione arrived at her first class, Care of Magical Creatures excited for the new term. Over the last term Professor Kettleburn became more daring in his choices of topics, though not quite as daring as hippogriffs. Professor Kettleburn didn't have the advantage of being as large as Hagrid, and he was already missing two of his limbs, and still seemed reluctant to lose more. Hermione's classmates' experiences in their third year in this subject seemed rather like Hermione's. Hermione privately supposed that perhaps a daring, bordering on reckless side was needed to want to deal with many magical animals on a daily basis. She looked at the hut that was home to her large friend and wished that she could tell him that he would one day be a real professor of Hogwarts, if not always the best or safest of the professors

*****Remus*****

The sixth year Gryffindors left their first defense class of the new term rather quietly after the sobering topic of the Unforgivable Curses being dealt with. The teacher, or course, did not actually perform the curses, but there was a rather tense class discussion where no student said very much, and now they all had to write reports. Remus wondered who had decided to pair Slytherins and Gryffindors together in so many classes, especially Defense Against the Dark Arts every year. Many sixth and seventh year classes only had one section per year of each class because students were not required to take as many classes or were not able to get into them. The teacher this year, though not a bad teacher, had rather low standards, so Acceptables on OWLs were allowed to take the class, so two sections were still needed. With the war going on outside the walls, and perhaps even at times inside the walls, few people wanted to risk not being as equipped as possible.

When the four Gryffindor boys were momentarily alone in the hall, Sirius indicated a side passage that would get them to their next classroom about as quickly as the path that other students took. It would also give them privacy though, and Sirius looked like there was something he wanted to say. Sirius stalked into the passage behind a large drapery, not stopping again to see if he was followed.

"What's eating you, Padfoot?" James asked, with a hint of resignation in his voice after they had walked far enough to not be heard by people in the regular hallways. Remus often wondered how the many hallways of Hogwarts worked, some of which that didn't even make sense on their map. There was complex magic in place.

Sirius snapped around, "I just can't take it. I tried so hard not to say anything in class. You know that half of those Slytherins in our year and older have probably already used those damn curses. How can we compete with that? How? And Regulus is going to be just the same," Sirius punched at a stone wall in anger and frustration. "My own brother. My whole damn family! Bellatrix is already foul, but she has been for years honestly. And Narcissa is marrying Lucius Malfoy of all people, and she's always been full of herself and blood purity. 'Dromeda's the only one not against us and they disowned her! I hate them all! And all the other Death Eaters too. I just don't know what I can do," he ranted to the boys who already knew all of these facts.

Remus wasn't sure what to say to his friend, and James didn't seem much better off. Peter simply watched the display with an unreadable look on his face.

"It will be okay Sirius," Remus managed to say to break the silent, not at all content with his stale and ineffective choice of words.

"Will it though?" Sirius asked. "How can it when they will use curses like that? When they respect life that little?" He asked more quietly, "Are we going to become murderers too? Is it still murder if they are like that?" Sirius looked at each of the boys, and Remus wasn't sure when he had heard Sirius express so much emotion. They all new that he hated Death Eater even more than the rest of them, probably to spite his upbringing.

"I don't know, Sirius," James said with a sigh, "I struggle with the same things every day. We just have to do what we can at a given time and look out for each other and the ones we care about." He looked around at the other boys and Remus and finally Sirius nodded, though Peter seemed lost in some thoughts.

"We'll be late for Potions," Remus offered with a sigh, bringing the boys back to their current situation.

"Yeah," Sirius said, "Thanks guys," he finished, looking at the ground, clearly not referring to the reminder for class, which he was always far less than thrilled about.

Remus had a multitude of things weighing on his mind, from his personal future to the state of the wizarding world to the enigma that was Hermione Granger and her current situation. He found the last topic most pressing, and it seemed to fill his thoughts as he attempted to listen through the rest of his lessons for the day.

*****Hermione/Remus*****

Hermione was busy with Transfiguration and helping other students until dinner. The second year Hufflepuff girl who stayed over the holidays seemed rather taken with Hermione and needed some help with a few classes, with some work that Hermione privately wished she had asked for help in over the holiday. After dinner, Hermione and Remus had arranged to meet in the library. There really wasn't much work for them to do, at least for Hermione. Many teachers gave a light load immediately after the Christmas holidays, seemingly acknowledging that a large portion of the students did not finish with the large amount of work that they were given to do over the break.

Hermione walked into the library and saw Remus facing her from his position standing next to the table that they would usually be sitting at. He usually wouldn't stand while waiting for her, and now he walked towards her with a distant look on his face.

"Come on," he whispered to her as he paused next to her before taking her hand and continuing out of the door. He took her to the classroom they had used to speak privately in now on multiple occasions. He locked the door and silenced the room once they were both inside, as had become their pattern.

"I've figured out some things," Remus offered after a moment of silence.

"What do you mean?" asked Hermione, wondering what could be a problem.

"Your friend- is named Harry Potter, isn't he? James Potter's son?" he asked, a bit tense.

"What makes you think that?" Hermione responded, attempting not to show facial expression at his accusation or her very poor response. She didn't really want to lie, but this was very dangerous territory.

"Damn it all, Hermione, haven't I proven myself enough for you to just tell me the truth? About this little thing? I'm already almost positive. It would explain everything. I bet James tells his son all sorts of stories from Hogwarts. You might have been over to their house and heard them yourself! How else would you know about the map and everything else?" he spoke, seemingly struggling to stay calm.

As he spoke, Hermione's throat tightened, feeling sadness for her friend Harry. Everything really should have been just as Remus described.

"Well?" Remus prompted.

"How did you know about Harry?" Hermione asked, barely trusting her voice not to reveal even more.

"So it's true?" Remus asked, seeking clarification of his suspicion.

Hermione sighed, "Harry- is James's son. But you can't- of course I know you wouldn't- sorry," she finished, rushing before he could speak. She wouldn't doubt his wisdom and silence."

"Lily's father was names Harry," Remus explained, "And she wants to name her first son after him. I suppose I was really hoping for James that the boy was his. The whole thing may have been a bit of a leap, but it made too much sense. And they have certainly been getting closer," he said with a smile.

"You can't ask for any more specifics though," Hermione pleaded, "I shouldn't have even told you that" she apologized. Remus nodded, seemingly content with this confirmed information and perhaps still pondering the implications. Hermione knew that all of these moments this year were really shaping who these young men and women would be, and it would certainly be interesting to watch Harry's parents draw closer together as time wore on.

Edit: I changed the last few sentences to better flow into the next chapter that I am now planning, because I was almost going to forget something fairly important. I'm also going back to clarify that Lily's friend that I've mentioned before is Marlene McKinnon, because I found her, and she is thought to have been a friend of Lily's in school.

A/N: Not to beg, but please review. I hope I'm doing okay, especially with the romantic relationship and with Peter. I'm never quite sure what to do with him or when he turned bad. I show little shadows here and there. I have been writing, but I haven't really felt inspiration for this story, and all the sudden I had some thoughts on that Harry/Fleur story that I mentioned forever ago. I had thought that idea was just going to die, but it definitely won't now.